Former peace negotiator calls for MILF-MNLF collaboration

KIDAPAWAN CITY: A leading peace advocate in Mindanao on Wednesday urged leaders of both the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) to unite and jointly work for genuine peace in southern Mindanao.

“Their leaders can sit down and discuss how they can mutually cooperate in pushing forward the Mindanao peace initiative,” Lawyer Jesus Dureza, former chief government negotiator with the MILF, said in his regular column in an on-line news service based in Davao City.

He said a collaborative effort should be in place as the government and the MILF are nearing completion of the peace process.

A former peace adviser, Dureza urged the leaders of the MILF, especially Al Haj Murad to reach out to MNLF group to jointly work for peace in the troubled Muslim Mindanao region.

He believed the GPH-MNLF 1996 peace accord and the upcoming peace agreement between Manila and the MILF can be used as “uniting force” for both sides to work together since they were fighting for the same Bangsamoro people.

In his column in Advocacy MindaNOW, Dureza said the MNLF-Misuari faction reviving the call for independence was no longer viable.

“Independence for Bangsamoro is no longer an option. It has outlived its own viability. It is no longer the call of the time,” Dureza said, adding that if push through, it could bring more hardship to the people of Muslim Mindanao.

He also appealed to the MNLF to work within the parameters of the 1996 peace accord and reach out to the MILF for “partnership in bringing about peace in southern Mindanao.”

Dureza urged Murad to address the issue of other emerging groups that undermine the peace initiatives of Manila and the MILF.

Besides renegade MNLF in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, which recently made its desire for independence in an unpopular move to take over Zamboanga City, other threat groups also exist in Mindanao, including the Abu Sayyaf and the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters as well as private armed groups.

He said these groups must be contained to really attain peace in the island.